I recently recieved a visitor at my workshop that never left. She’s a tiny, trembling little mutt not much bigger than a cat and had clearly been homeless for a while. I live in a small town but couldn’t locate her owner and I didn’t have the heart to turn her out. So I have two shopdogs now.

Maya (below) we’ve had for a couple of years. She’s is an Australian Shepherd that we affectionately call “the birth defect”. She’s a purebread from two show dogs that never should have been bred. (If you breed two of the same type of Aussies you may get puppies that are mostly white, like Maya and these are usually born blind, deaf or both. Fortunately Maya is healthy!) She is by far the best dog I’ve ever known, extremely smart, obsessively committed to pleasing us, and absolutley docile. She’s afraid of noise and likes to snort sawdust, so she mostly stays in the house while I work and comes out to inspect the finished pieces.

Puddles (the little one below) is the reformed street dog I mentioned above. She’s the opposite of Maya but we’re working on her! Mostly she likes to shiiver and shake because she’s always cold but she tolerates noise better than Maya. Her job is to chew on any wood I need turned into a pile wet little chips and poop on the floor.

Do you have a shopdog? is your shop dog a cat? Please share a photo or tell us about yours and how it “helps out”.

And a couple of jokes won’t hurt either…

On the door of a woodworker’s shop a visitor noticed the sign DANGER! BEWARE OF DOG! Inside he saw a harmless old hound dog asleep on the floor besides the counter. He asked the shop owner, “Is THAT the dog folks are supposed to beware of?” “Yep, that’s him,” he replied. The visitor could not help but be amused. “That certainly does not look like a dangerous dog to me. Why in the world would you post that sign?” “Because,” the owner replied, “before I posted that sign, people kept tripping over him.”

well jim you did a great thing by taking in the little pup…im sure puddles will grow out of its current problem and be more of a help…lol…here is my new shop helper…she is like your first dog…not real keen on noise, but will inspect the finished project…she is a really good dog and is coming along nicely , she still thinks her tail is some type of alien that is following her around…its quite funny to see her pull on it and almost pull her behind from off the floor…but she is great at giving kisses…and her mellow mood face always makes me melt.

Grizz- Puddles is also fond of giving kisses, but only on the mouth, which I am not too keen on. I call them Oh-La-La’s because it sounds french! She watches your face while she’s on your lap and tries to catch you off gaurd so she can shoot her little head up and give you a lick. I am always careful to keep my face turned away when she tries to strike!

yea jim ive seen her type before…lol…they watch and wait for there moment to strike…and then its wham…right in the mouth…lol…my girl molly is a great kisser..her being a lab, has a soft tongue thank goodness…cuz she will lick like she is giving you a shave…lol…ive had dogs most of my life…and there wonderful to have…but i had forgotten how tough it was bring up a puppy…so this one here is probably my last one…ive got back problems and doing as much getting up and down to take her out and so on has been hard…but she is doing much better the last few weeks…and im trying to get her to like the shop more and more…ill take her a chew bone out there…and she will lay there and stay busy with that…she doesnt care for it when i run the planer…maybe she will get use to it…might have to make her some special doggy muffs to go over her ears…grizz

I almost had a shop dog once. My daughter brought home a stray while she was in her last year of high school, after we told her no more pets. My wife and I wanted to get situated being empty nesters without any pets to care for. We told her that she had to go. I knew we were in trouble, when she begged for us to give her time to find a home for her. After we agreed to give her a week she immediately began calling this little pup Jude. I said one week thats it. By the middle of the week this pup was going everywhere with me since I was stuck caring for this little thing while she was in school and working her pt job. By the end of the week I was attached to Jude and she was in training to be shop dog. She was good in the shop and never got excited when I turned on any of the machines. Needless to say my daughter found a home for this little pup and she was gone. Just so you know how attached I had gotten. Here’s a pick of the little girl.

We found Lightfoot in our shed 7 years ago, starving and scared. She has been the best dog I’ve ever had and don’t know what we would do without her. She goes everywhere with us. Here’s a pic of her leading the way up the mountain.

Jim- I think your new little beagle pup needs a sweater to help him/her stay a bit warmer. They have them at Walmart for 5.00 in the pet section. Fleece or knitted is best. I think you will find that the pup is warmer and will feel more secure with the sweater on. :)

-- Homer : "Oh, and how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain."

Rivergirl- Puddles has a couple of sweaters but she wrestles with Maya so much that the get torn off quickly! By the way, she’s full grown, not a puppy. I’d say a year old because she has all her adult teeth. She must be a beagle mixed with some type of small terrier. Her long legs make me think she may be a beagle mixed with a white tailed deer.

While i wont call her a shop dog .. here’s Grace .. shes the quirkiest yellow lab i have ever met but also one of the aboslute sweetest dogs ever. She wont go upstairs or downstairs to the shop but will gladly run on sheets of ice and dive into the stream in December. Shes justgetting back up to speed after tearing her ACL and having surgery.

Thats her best “look dad im a wolf” pose .

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

Here’s Riley, my shopdog. As you can see, he stays in a crate in my shop when I’m working. He follows me everywhere and if he’s not in the crate, he’d be under foot all the time. While noise doesn’t bother him, I leave him upstairs (it’s a basement shop) when I run really loud machinery. My rule of thumb is, if I wear earmuffs, the dog’s upstairs.

Riley’s also recovering from a blown out knee. He’s coming around pretty well.

I need to get my recent pics out of my camera, but yeah, we’ve got a shop dog. His name is Brody, and he’s a hyper 7 month old pup that has finally figured out cords are not to be chewed upon… He likes shredding pine, but seems to leave the hardwoods alone… I am okay with that for now…

As far as breed goes, we aren’t certain. His mother was a yellow lab, his dad, they thought was a black lab, but he’s not growing as fast as the other lab puppies in the neighborhood, and he has some features around the head and face, not to mention the overall build that make me think Boxer… Which is fine… he retrieves like crazy, as well as points and flushes, all with very little training…. He’s too young to take birding yet, but maybe next season….

Not quite a shop dog but loves helping out occasionally. Loves chewing on wood… well to tell you the truth she just loves chewing – fences, gates, metal, wood, oh and of course bones. She was a stray who decided to stay, we have had a bit of a hard time with her as she hates thunderstorms and garbage trucks. Doesn’t mind all the loud noises that gets produced around here occaisionally with various tools but must have had it bad in her previous home. It has taken 18 months to get her half way to decent! But she really is a sweetie sometimes , cant you tell!!!!